House Redmyre (Histories and Lore)
"House Redmyre" is a part of the Histories & Lore, a special feature in the Blu-ray of Season 3 of Game of Thrones. ''It is narrated by Queen Skylar Redmyre. Synopsis Skylar Redmyre talks about the history, origns and power of her house. Narration '''Skylar Redmyre: 'In between the eastern coast of Westeros, and the western coast of Essos, sits the Pride Islands, a web of islands that sit between the Vale, the Crownlands and the Stormlands. It is the ancestral seat of House Redmyre, and the homeland of the Pridemen. Officially, this house was founded during the Conquest of Aegon Targaryen and his sisters Visenya and Rhaenys. He came to what was, at the time, the largest of the islands, Hoskagon. He stayed there, and he found warring houses and coasts netted with dead bodies. He built the Iron Keep. He built it to last, not like that great monstrosity Harrenhal, but to last the years as opposed to the armies who would invade. But that's not all that he did - he found, beneath the earth, beneath the Iron Keep itself, a huge web of diamonds, emeralds and other valuable treasures. Visenya suggested he take it for himself, but Aegon was smarter than that - if he took from the Pridemen what was rightfully theirs, something that should belong to them, then the Pridemen would never be his. They would never even give him the honour of remembering who he was. So he simply arranged the houses alongside the chiefest lords of Hoskagon, so that House Redmyre became the rulers in the Iron Keep. Aegon eventually left the Pride Islands, and they established their own monarchy. They didn't invade. They didn't plot against the First Dragon. But then Lord Howland Arryn attacked us, thinking us vulnerable. So Aegon's sisters returned and obliterated them, and Aegon returned to make more arrangements. Howland Arryn himself fell upon the blade of Lady Hera Redmyre, better known as Hera the Hawk. The blade was awkwardly made and very uneven, since the Pridemen were unfamiliar with Andal craftsmanship. And the blade was damaged considerably by dragonfire during the battle - what can I say, the breath of Balerion the Dread was a terrible thing. Twenty years after Howland's death, Aegon sent his cousin, Argyle the Red, and he married Lady Hera. Argyle gave her children, and thus the Targaryens bred with the Redmyres - the seahorse, and the bat, of the same blood, but with the blood of the dragon fed into the mix. Aegon's last visit in his life to Hoskagon was commemorated by him helping to reforge Lady Hera's sword, which he called Midnight. And, from the very moment that Midnight was presented to Hera, the wars began. The Braavosi tried to take our islands, and King Hugor Redmyre, the First of His Name, killed him, after a war that lasted for seventy years; Frances forged the amnesty between our Pride Islands, so that we could fight stronger as one body of people. Pride cannot exist without unity, he claimed. He masterminded an amnesty with all Free Cities. We had wars with the Riverlords, in which the King of the Pride Islands was avenged by his daughter, who took each of the defeated's daughters to try and forge peace between the bat and the trout. That daughter was named Skylar, the First of Her Name. My namesake. I'm not suggesting that we are the most invulnerable house in the Seven Kingdoms - no house in the Seven Kingdoms is invulnerable, no matter how hard they try to be. King Simond the Centaur summoned his father's bastard children and legitimised them, giving them dominion over an island of their choosing. Three of them, triplets, sought Hoskagon itself; unfortunately, the four others defended their King, and the seven bastards repelled each other in a brutal battle, after which Simond renounced his personal claim to the throne. His brother, Hugo, succeeded him. Then we had the wars with the ironborn of House Greyjoy. To the Sphinx Above, if ever we were ashamed of anything, it was our wars with the krakens. The history books remember Queen Artemys, the Second of Her Name, as the woman who lost her children in the Battle of the Narrow Sea, where she gained a distinctly pyrrhic victory. She didn't see it as the victory. Neither did Daeron the Good when he sailed from King's Landing and nulled the conflict between us, and ordered what became known as the Slaughter of the Sons. House Greyjoy lost five heirs to the dragon. The Slaughter of the Sons became the name of the whole war, as a matter of fact. Our most famed ruler was King Matagar, the Third of His Name, remembered in the tales of septas to the lordlings of Westeros as Matagar the Mighty. He married a Martell princess, and they had three children. House Bluemyre of Severyne, one of our chiefest of vassals, rose up against him. One of his children fled before the assassins could claim him, and Jaehaerys Bluemyre responded by raping Matagar's wife, before killing her. Matagar fled, so fast you'd think he was a coward, for the Bluemyres declared themselves new kings and queens of the Pride Islands. But Matagar returned, and the Bluemyres were dissolved like sand dropped into a rushing river. Matagar the Mighty earned his name. But, even though we had great kings and queens of the past, that didn't stop us from facing dissent and rebellion from time to time. Until Robert's Rebellion, we have had so many rebellions, more than any can bother to count. When I came along, my father feared to allow me outside the castle for fear that I would be torn to pieces by the mobs he saw in every shadow. But my father wasn't mad, and nor were my older brothers, the ones I watched leave the Iron Keep in splendid armour to quell the mobs that swelled on the islands. He understood ruling better than I could ever have understood it. I was young. I was wild, in my own way. But I learned, eventually, that wildness and youth would outstay their welcome soon enough. Everybody knows what I have done. Skylar the Champion. The Red Queen. The Dornishman's Bane. I didn't do the things that I did in the hopes that such extravagant names would be used to sing songs about me. I did it because I am Queen Skylar Redmyre, the Second of My Name, Sword of the Night and Lady Paramount of the Pride Islands. I will do whatever it takes to ensure that my house survives. I love my children, I do not deny it, and now I have lost one. I have made enemies, I confess it. But to buckle before every enemy you face is like toppling to every gust of wind that comes your way. And bats are our sigil for a reason. If the wind blows, we ride it. Forever riding. Forever flying. Forever Rising. Appearances Category:Histories & Lore